100866851 the secrets of codes

7/31/2019 100866851 the Secrets of Codes

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CONTENTS

Published by Weldon Owen Inc. 415 Jackson Street San Francisco, CA 94111 www.weldonowen.com Weldon Owen inc. Executive Chairman, Weldon Owen Group John Owen CEOand President Terry Newell VP, Sales and New Business Development Amy Kaneko Senior VP, International Sales Stuart Laurence VP and Publisher Roger Shaw Assistant Editor Sarah Gurman VP and Creative Director Gaye Allen Art Director Tina Vaughan Production Director Chris Hemesath Production Manager Michelle Duggan ColorManager Teri Bell Conceived and produced for Weldon Owen Inc. by Heritage Editorial Editorial Direction Andrew Heritage, Ailsa C.Heritage Senior Designers Philippa Baile at Oil Often, Mark Johnson Davies Additional Design Bounford.com Illustrators Andy Crisp, Philippa Baile at Oil Often, David Ashby, Mark Johnson Davies, Peter Bull Art Studio Picture Research Louise Thomas, cashou.com DTP ManagerMark Bracey Consultant editors Dr. Frank Albo MA, MPhil., Ph.D. candidate History of Art, University of Cambridge Trevor Bounford Anne D. Holden Ph.D. (Cantab.), 23andMe Inc., San Francisco, CA D.W.M. Kerr BSc. (Cantab.) Richard Mason TimStreater BSc. Elizabeth Wyse BA (Cantab.) A Weldon Owen production 2009 Weldon Owen Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or inpart in any form. Cataloging-in-Publication data for this title is on file withthe Library of Congress isbn 978-0-520-26013-9 (cloth : alk. paper) Manufactured in China 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

INTRODUCTION BY PAUL LUNDE

8

ACPOTNMTHEBNVTJSD02 03CODES FOR SECRECY The Art of Concealment 42 44 46 ForYour Eyes Only Frequency Analysis Disguising Ciphers64 66 68 70

0112 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30

04COMMUNICATING AT DISTANCE Long-Distance Alarms Flag Signals Semapho

re and the Telegraph Morse Code Person toPerson 90 92 94 96 98

05CODES OF WAR Classical Codes of War The IndecipherableCode The Great Cipher 19th-Century Innovations Military Map Codes Field Signals The Zimmermann Telegram Enigma: The Unbreakable System WW IICodes and Code Breakers Cracking Enigma NavajoWindtalkers Cold War Codes 102 104 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120122 124

THE FIRST CODES Reading the Landscape Tracking Animals

Bushcraft Signs Early Petroglyphs First Writing Systems ReadingCuneiform Alphabets and Scripts The Evolution ofNumerical Systems Linear A and Linear B The PhaistosDisc

SECTS, SYMBOLS, AND SECRET SOCIETIES Early Christians The Pentangle Divination

Heresies, Sects, and Cults 48 Rosslyn Chapel AlchemyKabbalism Necromancy Rosicrucians Freemasons 50 52 54 56 58


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60

Medieval Cipher Systems 72 The Babington Plot The DaVinci Code? Ciphertexts and Keys Grilles 74 76 78 80

Spies and Black Chambers 82 Mechanical Devices Hidden inPlain Sight 84 86

The Mystery of Hieroglyphs 32 Hieroglyphs Revealed TheRiddle of the Maya Indigenous Traditions 34 36 38


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ACPOTNMTHEBNVTJSD DSJTVNBEHTMNTOPC06CODES OF THE UNDERWORLD Street Slangs From Samurai to Yakuza CockneyRhyming Slang The Mob Ramblers Sign LanguageCops and Codes The Zodiac Mystery The Zodiac Legacy Graffiti Youth Codes Digital Subversion 128 130 132 134 136 138140 142 144 146 148

07ENCODING THE WORLD Describing Time Describing Form Forceand Motion Mathematics: The Indescribable The PeriodicTable Defining the World Encoding the LandscapeNavigation Taxonomy The Genetic Code Genetic AncestryUsing the Genetic Code 152 154 156 158 160 162 164 166 168 170172 174

08CODES OF CIVILIZATION Codes of Construction Taoist MysticismSouth Asian Sacred Imagery The Language ofBuddhism The Patterns of Islam Mysteries ofthe North Medieval Visual Sermons StainedGlass Windows Renaissance Iconography The Age ofReason Victoriana Textiles, Carpets, and Embroidery 178 180 182 184 186 188 190 192 194 196 198 200

09CODES OF COMMERCE Commercial Codes Brands and TrademarksMakers Marks Codes of Work Currency and Countefeits The Book in Your Hands 204 206 208 210 212 214

10CODES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR Body Language Survival Signals Sporting Codes Etiquette Dressing Your Message HeraldryFormal Dress Codes Decoding the Unconscious TheLanguage of Dreams 218 220 222 224 226 228 230 232 234

11

VISUAL CODES Signs and Signage Highway Codes ChallengedCommunication Describing Music Musical Scores Animal TalkExtraterrestrials 238 240 242 244 246 248 250

12IMAGINARY CODES Modern Magic and Mayhem The Bible CodeThe Beale Papers Mystery and Imagination FantasyCodes Doomsday Codes 254 256 258 260 262 264

13THE DIGITAL AGE The First Computers Supercomputers Talkingto Computers Alice, Bob, and Eve Future MedicineWhere Are Codes Taking Us? 268 270 272 274 276 278

GLOSSARY INDEX

280 281

PUBLISHERS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 287 PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 288


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THE FIRST CODES

BUSHCRAFT SIGNS

BUSHCRAFT SIGNSPenan twig codesThe Penan hunter-gatherers of Sarawak, Borneo still use an ancient field messagesystem involving cut twigs.

Military signsIn combat or search-and-find situations, silent communication in the field can be a matter of life or death. The US military uses a system of hand and body signaling which closely resembles that used by other armed forces, and is designed to communicate key information to fellow soldiers, and to potential suspects whomight not speak English.

A

Indicates direction to follow

Must follow

lthough there are various theories about how and when the first spoken languagesevolved, little is truly known, although we live today with the Tower of Babel le

gacy. What is more clear was the necessity among migrant hunting groups for a sophisticated means of silent communication, involving hand signals and body language while stalking, and the ability to provide signals and instructions to others from the same group or tribe concerning their movements. We can find examplesof these among many primitive cultures the world over today, and some have beenadopted and adapted by modern hunters, armies, and organizations like the Scouts.

Water in this direction

Turn (left or right)

This way

Not this way

This way over obstacle

Party split up

Message this way

Gone home 1 2 3 4 5

Field information signsWhile many hunting and gathering groups such as the San Bushmen of the Kalahari

Desert and the Penan of Borneo (opposite) developed their own, unique bushcraftsignals and ways of leaving messages, it was from encounters with these systemsthat an internationally recognized vocabulary of bushcraft signs was developed,initially by colonial military troops, and latterly by the Scouts movement. These are designed to provide information for other people or groups in the field, and are closely linked to the vocabulary of modern survival signs (see page 220).These signs may be drawn in the sand or earth, or constructed from available materials such as sticks or boulders.

Hurry up


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Long way

6

7

8

9

10

Be there in three days

No food, but in good mood

Freeze Be warned, do not follow us

Come

Go ahead

File formation

Cover

Crouch

Shadow WolvesBushcraft skills are still important today. An elite US police unit, the ShadowWolves, composed of Native Americans from a number of peoples including the Navajo and Blackfoot, use traditional tracking techniques to hunt down drug traffickers along the US/Mexican border. They have impounded over 45,000 pounds (20,412kg) of marijuana since 1972, and have traveled to Central Asia and Eastern Europe to teach tracking skills to local police officers.

Indian signsOne of the most comprehensive systems of signs used whilst stalking game known to us today was developed by the Plains Indians. These involved both complex bodylanguage and hand signs, and images that could be drawn (left). In addition, the Plains Indians developed a complex signing language which allowed them to overcome the language barrier between tribes (also achieved among the Aboriginal tribes of Australias Western Desert), and also acted as a primal form of signing fordeaf people (see page 242).

Antelope

Bad

Bear alive

Bear dead

Beaver in his house

Bird track

Black deer


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Headless bodies

Bow and arrow

Brothers

Indian camp

Canoe and warriors

Cloud

Cold and snow

Day

Death

US military personnel learned

Native American hand sign language.

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THE FIRST CODES

ALPHABETS AND SCRIPTS

Alphabets and Scriptsa e(i) u

Syllabic alphabets and syllabariesThe letters of a syllabic alphabet normally indicate consonants plus vowels by modifying the shape of the consonant letter, or by adding diacritics, or both. These alphabets are richly represented in the many complex scripts of the Indian subcontinent. The Bhahmi script is the oldest (c.300 bc), and the Devanagari (right) is the most widespread. A true syllabary, with a separate sign for each possible combination of consonant and vowel, would have several hundred characters.Syllabic alphabets instead modify the shapes of the letters depending on which vowel follows or precedes it. Japanese Hiragana and Katakana, and the Korean Hangul script (below), are examples, and such syllabic alphabets are used to write Inuit and other North American Indian languages.

Chinese scriptpa pi

T

b

g

d

h

chu

z

ha

kh

th

y

k

l

he earliest consonantal alphabet was written in cuneiform in the city of Ugariton the Syrian coast c. 1400 bc, but the order of the signs suggests that it was

influenced by an alphabet similar to the somewhat later Phoenician, the earliestexample of which dates to 1000 bc. The latter was spread throughout the Mediterranean by Phoenician traders. The Greeks perfected the system by adding signs for vowels, while to the east, in India and Southeast Asia, syllabic alphabets, possibly inspired by Aramaic letter forms, were brought to an extraordinary degreeof phonetic perfection. Curiously, Akkadian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics continued to be written in the traditional way for 1,000 years after the invention of this much simpler way of writing.Abjads and abugidasUgaritic was closely related to Phoenician, Canaanite, and Aramaic, as well as t


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o Hebrew. Such Semitic alphabets, consisting solely of consonants, are today called abjads, after the first three letters, aleph, beth, and gimel, the sign for aleph representing not the vowel a, but a glottal stop. Almost all scripts used forSemitic languages are abjads. Scripts like Ethiopic, which developed from the South Arabian abjad, but modified the shapes of the letters to indicate followingvowels, are known as abugidas (see Devanagari, opposite). Most Indian and many Southeast Asian scripts are of this type. The Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet (below), but although well adapted to writing Semitic languages, a consonantal script was clearly inadequate for a vowel-rich language like Greek. Signs that represented Semitic sounds not present in Greek were assigned vocalic values,and after much regional experimentation, the first true alphabet, in which every sound of the language could be represented by a single sign, was formed. The Greek versions of the Phoenician names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta, give us our word for alphabet.

pa

pi

pu

pu

pr

pr

ppa

pta

pra

Devanagari script An example of an abugidashowing how a single consonant sign is adapted to show its syllabic values.

m

n

s

k/g

kh

n

t/j

th

l/r

m

p/b

pp


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First appearing as a fully developed script on oracle bones from c.1200 bc, Chinese has developed over the centuries using four fundamental types of character:pictographs, visual representations of objects; differentiated characters, not pictorial, used for various relational and abstract ideas; associative pictographic compounds, made up of Writing Chinese requires two semantic elements knowledge of a huge two graphic components number of characters. whose meanings taken together suggest another word; and phonetic compounds drawn from either semantic or phonetic signs which, when combined, indicate pronunciation and meaning. The latter are used for some 90% of modern Chinese writing. Chinese today comprises some 60,000 characters, although less than 4,000 are normally used.Differentiated characters

Pictograph

p

sha

zh

q

r

sho

Horse a ae ja jae aa e jaa je o wa wae c.1200 bc for divination we jo u waa we wi ju iu wui i c.1500 bc for religious purposes 221 bc for proclamations or namesc.200 bc for official texts or literature c.ad 200 for official texts or literature c.ad 1400 for general use 1956 for general use c.ad 200, for drafts, notes,and letters

Upwards, rising

Sunset, ending

Willow

zhu

t

tt

Ugaritic remains the earliest

known alphabet. Dating from c.1400 bc, it was written in cuneiform. It originally comprised 22 consonants, but grew to 30.

The Korean Hangul script is an elegant

syllabary, in which the consonants and vowel sounds are treated separately, thevowel sounds acting as modifiers to the consonants.

Knowing your Ps and QsThe Roman alphabet, which forms the basis of the modern Western writing system,first appeared in inscriptions in the 6th century bc, and was probably derived from Etruscan. Originally it comprised only 21 letters, V standing for both the sounds V and U and I standing for both I and J. U was not distinguished from the 10th century, and W originally two Vs written side by side did not appear un


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substantially later. J was finally assigned its own graphic form in the 15th century. Italian still rejects K for a hard C, preferring the digraph CH. Special letorms and diacritics have been adopted for certain sounds in Scandinavian and some Central European languages, as well as Turkish.

The Roman alphabet was used not only

het ha

zayin z

waw w

he h

dalet d

gimel g

bet b

alef

samek s

nun n

mem m

lamed l

kaf k

yod y

tet t

taw t

sin/in

re r

qof q

sade s

pe p

ayin

throughout the western empire, but was carried much further by Christian missionaries in succeeding centuries, which explains its modern predominance. In the Orthodox east, Greek was still used; a new alphabet was developed by Byzantine missionaries in the 9th century which combined features of both Latin and Greek, adapted to translate the scriptures into Old Church Slavonic. Its use was spread by Saints Cyril and Methodius who led missions into eastern Europe and Russia, and where it took root and became known as Cyrillic (right). Its 33 letters lend themselves to Slavonic vowel sounds, and it is currently used to write some 50 Central Asian languages across the former Soviet Union.


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Phonetic compound

s

ss

ng

ch/j

tch

cha

kh

t

p

h

Pictographic compound

ss

c

zha

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THE FIRST CODES

INDIGENOUS TRADITIONS

INDIGENOUS TRADITIONSTotemic imageryThe style of totem carving varies among the Haida, Tlingit, Kwakiutl, and otherNorthwestern and Coastal First Nations, and the style of decoration and iconography appears on all sorts of artifacts: house poles, screens, chests, and canoes,and was also used for identifying tattoos among some groups. The symbolic system was coherent. The universe was perceived as a house and the house itself a reflection of the cosmos. For example, the different parts of the house mirrored the human body: Front posts Rear posts Longitudinal beams Rafters Cladding Decoration Arm bones Leg bones Backbone Ribs Skin Tattoos

AdinkraThe Akan of Ghana in Africa have an elaborate traditional system of symbols adinkra which are not only linked to their proverbs, songs, and stories but also serve to affirm social identity and political views. They are universally recognized by the Akan, and have been for many centuries, but to outsiders they appear simply as decorative motifs. The choice of design is therefore an intensely personal statement available even to those who are illiterate. Adinkra appear in wood,paint, and metal, but since the Akan are very much a textile culture, they aremost prominent in cloth for example, the handwoven kente or the block-printed ad

inkra or proverb cloths. Over 700 symbols with their associations have now been cataloged. Some adinkra are traditional a wooden comb for beauty and feminine qualities while others have taken on modern meanings, wealth symbols now standing for a BMW or a television. For example, the symbol of the cocoa tree, introduced in the 19th century, and Ghanas principal cash crop, does not simply refer to theplant or to chocolate, but also to its social effects, bitterly expressed in theproverb: kookoo see abusua, paepae mogya mu cocoa ruins the family, and divides bood relations. Again, a pattern which a European might read as a daisy, a generic flower, or the sun is a symbol implying unequal opportunity, linked to the proverb: All the peppers on the same tree do not ripen simultaneously.

T

here are today thousands of lost cultures, many highly sophisticated, with rich traditions, rituals, and myths, with equally complex means of expressing and commemorating them. Many oral traditions in the Americas, Africa, and Australasia have been eroded by the relentless rise of globalization. However, there remain some enigmatic fragments through which, like Mayan glyphic writing (see page 36), arich but lost past can at least be glimpsed.A lost heritageTotem poles are a striking feature of Pacific Northwest indigenous peoples, andare found from southern Alaska to northern Washington State. The word totem is derived from Ojibwa or a related language, and means kinship group. One of the principal functions of the totem pole was to record family and clan legends, lineages,and notable events. When they were created they could be read by the members of the clan or family that erected them, but as they decayed their meaning was usual

ly lost. Their message could simply be to proclaim the successes of a family orindividual, commemorate a notable potlatch ceremony, or tell a legendary or historical story. Shame poles were erected as symbolic reminders of unpaid debts, quarrels, murders, and other shameful events that could not be publicly discussed. One such pole was recently erected in Cordova, Alaska depicting the upside-down head of Exxon ex-CEO Lee Raymond. The carvings would represent the crest of the person or clan concerned, indicating their moiety Eagle or Raven and their lineage. The Haida alone, for example, had some 70 crest figures, of which only about20 were in common use. The following groups of animals are frequently associatedwith the Eagle or Raven moieties: Eagle Fish Amphibians, such as frogs Beaver (


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considered amphibian) Raven Skate Sea mammals Land mammals (except beaver)

Adinkrehene Chief of adinkra symbols: greatness, leadership. Denkyem Crocodile:adaptability.

Gateways to nowhereMost monumental architecture even for religious, ceremonial, or entombment and memorial purposes has a strong functional element, in addition to its symbolic qualities. A singular exception is the stylized wooden Japanese O-torii portal (below), sometimes set as entrances to temples or shrines, which serve to divide the sacred from the profane world. Often freestanding, giving on to nothingness asis appropriate for Shinto, essentially a nature cult they are also arranged along paths leading to a shrine. No one knows the origin of the word perhaps perching place for birds but torii are traditionally made in three pieces, three being the number sacred to the kami or gods. Before passing through the gateway it is traditional to purify oneself by washing at the place provided temizu and then tobow and clap three times, asking permission to enter the sacred realm. Walkingtoward the shrine, the center of the path seichu should be avoided, for that isthe walking place of the spirits. These enigmatic gateways are rebuilt on a regular cycle, but of their origin little is known.

Duafe Wooden comb: beauty, femininity, hygiene. Dwennimmen Rams horns: strength,humility.

The designs of

The inhabitants represented both the spirit of the house itself and the spirit of their ancestors.

the figures on totem poles were specific to each clan, although there were some,like the Thunderbird surmounting this pole, that were common throughout the area.

Ese Ne Tekrema The teeth and the tongue: friendship. Funtunfunefu DenkyemfunefuCrocodiles: democracy, universality. Hwemudua Measuring stick: inspection, quality control. Mpatapo Knot of reconciliation: peacemaking. Owo Foro Adobe Snake climing a raffia tree: diligence, prudence. Owuo Atwedee The ladder of death: mort

ality. Woforo Dua Pa A When you climb a good tree: cooperation, support.

Typically carved of red cedar,

totem poles usually did not survive in the rain forest climate for longer than acentury, and their original meaning was lost as they decayed.

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SECTS, SYMBOLS, AND SECRET SOCIETIES

EARL CHRISTIANS Y

Early ChristiansCThe crucifixThe first representation of the crucifixion may be the satirical Alexamenos graffito, found in the remains of a boarding school on the Palatine Hill in Rome. Christ is shown on the cross with an asss head with a Christian youth praying, and the Greek inscription: Alexamenos worships (his) God. It has been dated between the1st and 3rd centuries ad. The cross was thus clearly identified with Christianity at a very early date, but only emerged as the central symbol of the faith in the 5th century.

Doves and peacocksTwo further symbols were rooted in the Classical tradition. To the pagan world,the dove was associated with Aphrodite, but for the Christians it represented the Holy Spirit, a pair representing conjugal love, sometimes drinking the water of life from a fountain, while one bearing an olive branch was one of the earliest symbols of reconciliation and peace. Pagans believed peacocks flesh to be incorruptible, and for Christians this was transmuted to represent immortality and the Resurrection.

The chrismonThe cross was often disguised as the chrismon, or Christs monogram: the two Greekletters chi rho. On October 27, 312 these letters changed the Roman world for ever. Two contestants for the Empire, Constantine and Maxentius, were preparing to confront each other at the Milvian Bridge, near Rome. The night before the battle, Constantine had a vision of the chi rho blazing against the sky and a voicesaying to him in hoc signo vinces in this sign thou shalt conquer. Christians inthe army told him that it was the emblem of their Redeemer and symbolic of the triumph of life over death. Constantine had the chi rho painted on his helmet, his soldiers shields, and his battle standard. The pagan army had no idea what it meant. Constantines victory was decisive, and from this date Rome turned towards Christianity. The wreath surrounding the chi rho is of palm or bay leaves forminga Roman crown of victory. For Christians, this came to represent the crown of m

artyrdom.

hristianity in its early years was literally an underground sect. Under Rome, itcould not declare itself openly, and its adherents adopted secret symbols to express their faith but avoid persecution by the authorities. Many of these codedmessages come from funerary remains, especially in catacombs, in Rome and elsewhere, and from Christian secret places of meeting and worship. The faith of the Christian dead was to be declared, but not in such a way that their friends and families would be punished. The cross, now the universally recognized symbol of Christianity, was, however, little used unless disguised. At a time of relentlesspersecution, it was too dangerous. The first Christians within the Roman empiredeveloped a number of secret signs and symbols, often related to pagan traditions, to identify themselves and each other. These coded messages were fundamental

in maintaining the community of belief among members of the early church for several centuries.Bread and wineGrain and grapes were symbols of abundance and joy all across the Roman world, where they were dedicated to Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, and Dionysius,the god of wine. The Christians transmuted them into their central mystery the Eucharist, the bread symbolizing the body and the wine the blood of Christ Himself. 2ND CENTURY 3RD CENTURY

The disguised cross


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The cross was represented by an anchor, a symbol of safety and coming to rest after the storms of life, or sometimes as a trident; the sword as a symbol of thecross was adopted much later, during the Crusades.

1ST CENTURY

4TH CENTURY

5TH CENTURY

The OransThe Roman square

The living crucifixThe first true crucifix is from northern Italy, dated to ad 420. The earliest examples show Christ on the cross but living and triumphant, as on the doors of Santa Sabina in Rome, after the Western tradition wearing a loin cloth to proclaimHis humanity; in the east Christ wears a tunic, representing His sovereignty.

IchthusOne of the earliest symbols was the fish, an ancient symbol of fertility and oflife and continuity, or often two fish flanking a trident. Fish and fishermen are frequently mentioned in the Gospels and were associated with the Eucharist, asa reminder of eternal life. Fish in Greek ichthus was also used as an acrostic:

esous CHristos THeou Uios Soter Jesus Christ Gods Son the Savior

The five-letter Latin words when read

The simple outline of a fish was often drawn

in the sand or spilt wine as a means of secretly acknowledging ones faith.

in order (either horizontally or vertically) translate as he who works the plow sows the seed.

A symmetrical arrangement of letters found on the walls of certain Roman houseswas probably an ingenious early Christian means of identification. This seemingl

y P innocent proverb A can be interpreted T A O as an anagrammatic E transposition cipher, R the letters being P A T E R N O S T E R rearranged to reveal O S ahidden message O A T (right). The Latin words E pater noster, meaning R Our Father, form a cross, with the spare As and Os representing the Greek words alpha (beginning) and omega (end), which also have a strong Christian significance.

The archaic figure of the person praying with lifted hands was a symbol for humans throwing themselves on the mercy of a divinity and not originally uniquely Christian.

The Good ShepherdDepictions of a shepherd with a lamb across his shoulders are found from the 3rdcentury Christ guarding and protecting His people but it was also a favorite Cl

assical motif. A lamb by itself, standing for Christ and His sacrifice, would similarly be understood by fellow Christians.

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SECTS, SYMBOLS, AND SECRET SOCIETIES

NECROMANCY

Necromancy

Tricks of the tradeThe esoteric implements of the medieval necromancer included magic circles, conjurations, sacrifices, swords, and prayer; magical alphabets were also highly significant. Circles were traced on the ground, often accompanied by various mystical symbols drawn from a mixture of Christian and occult ideas. At the opportunetime and location, sacrifices and animal offerings were often provided to propitiate ethereal beings. The most important medieval writings on the occult were bythe Benedictine abbot Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516, see page 73), and his pupil, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535). The latters Three Books About OccultPhilosophy (1531-33) included coded formulae for alchemy, Kabbalism, and the Theban alphabet (right), a table for communicating with the spirit world.

John DeeThe most famous magician of his age, an astrologer/ alchemist/necromancer, and cryptographer, Dr. John Dee (1527-1608) was revered in his time as the most learned man in all Europe. He was the personal astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the model for Shakespeares Prospero in The Tempest. He visited many courts in Europe, along with the mountebank Edward Kelley (1555-97), to find fundin

g for his exercises in divination and the occult. It is unsurprising that Dee made many enemies during his time in the court, several of whom continually brought charges of witchcraft against him. Ultimately, Dee would bring about his own downfall: despite his powerful position and prodigious intellect, his occult preoccupations overwhelmed him and he died in extreme poverty in 1608, reviled and pitied as a madman.

S

Magic in the BibleDespite the Bibles repeated condemnation of magic, in one peculiar episode King Saul visits a witch from the Canaanite city of Endor and cajoles her into summoning the recently deceased prophet Samuel in order to consult him about the threat

of the Philistines. While from the 5th century the orthodoxy of Christian dogmabecame increasingly set in stone, the possibility of alternative ritual and magical paths to communion with the spirit world held its appeal.

trictly, necromancy is the purported practice of communicating with or conjuringthe dead for the purpose of extracting information or to predict the future. Beginning in ancient Egypt and Babylonia, necromancy was also widely practiced inIsrael, China, and throughout the Greco-Roman world. According to the ChristianChurch, necromancy amounted to diabolical commerce with unclean spirits, rites of criminal curiosity, and the forbidden invocations of departed souls. But, persisting throughout the Middle Ages, necromancy achieved unprecedented popularityamong a clerical underworld who enthusiastically consulted magical grimoires tocommunicate with subterranean spirits and even angels. Other ancient sciences such

as geomancy and theurgy were also avidly studied. Among alchemists and the clergy alike, the notion that specially-coded alphabets and other symbolic devices,derived from their studies of arcane sources, could place humans in contact withthe other world became increasingly popular.Ancient originsNecromancy rituals and ghost expulsion/ exorcism texts were commonplace throughout the ancient Near East. In Egypt, as early as the second millennium bc, consultation with deceased royalty was sponsored by the state for public benefit. Thecentral rite usually consisted of the rubbing of magical salves onto the necromancers face or onto the figurine of the spirit to be consulted. In ancient Turkey,


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ritual communication with infernal spirits and deities was achieved by means ofpits dug into the ground which served as a portal for the chthonic deities to ease their passage between worlds. From this rich bed of mysterious rites, and from the great wave of translations of Arabic magical texts during the 12th and 13th centuries, literate, well-educated members of the European clergy mined necromantic texts which contained a synthesis of astral magic and exorcism techniquescombined with Christian and Jewish teachings. The systems of magic depicted inthese writings differed radically from the petty sorcery characteristic of the earlier centuries, becoming in effect an erudite method of conjuration and invocation.

Agrippa has often been identified as the modelfor the priest/sorcerer in Christopher Marlowes play Doctor Faustus (c.1589) whosells his soul to an emissary of the Devil.The Theban alphabet

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I/J

K

John Dee condensed all magic into a single symbolic equation, the occult equival

ent of Einsteins E = mc2. In his Monas Hieroglyphica he and Edward Kelley produced the Enochian alphabet, a purported means of communicating with the spirit (orangelic) world.John Dees single equation

L

M

N

O

P The Enochian alphabet

Q

R

S

T


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U/V Pa b Veh c, k Ged g, j Gal d Or f

W

X

Y

Z Un a Graph e Tal m Gon i Gon with point w/y

Sword The origin of the magicians wand. Magic circles Marked with mystic alphabetic symbols, these provided a sacred space protecting the necromancer.

Na h

Ur l

Mals p

Ger q

Drux n

The Key of Solomon is one of

the most notorious medieval handbooks of magic (attributed to King Solomon himself). The book contains magic circles (above), instructions for necromancy, invocations, and binding spells to conjure and constrain infernal spirits.

An imaginative representation of a

ceremony to ward off entities from the spirit world. Protected within a magic circle, the necromancers here are protecting themselves from a demon released by their excavations by citing arcane texts, while the central figure transmits themessage using a sword.

Pal x

Med o

Don r

Ceph z

Van

u/v

Fam s

Gisg t

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CODES FOR SECRECY

THE DA VINCI CODE?

The Da Vinci Code?

Life after death

T

he notebooks of the Italian High Renaissance artist and engineer Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), which are now divided among several major collections throughoutthe world, have attracted considerable attention, not least because of their subject matter and his use of apparently coded notes and annotations. The contentof the notebooks ranges from sketches from everyday life to anatomical drawingsand fantastic weapons of war, and encompasses detailed sketches for artistic commissions as well as mere doodles.

Secret writingThe notes da Vinci wrote on nearly every page of his notebooks appear inscrutable, but are in fact simply in mirror writing; whether this was because he felt theneed to disguise his notes from unfriendly eyes, or because, being lefthanded, he found it easier to write in this manner , remains a mystery There is little doubt, however . , that da Vinci was concerned that his notes often for good reaso

n remained private, or at least obscure to the casual viewer .

Inside the human bodyDa Vincis anatomical investigations undoubtedly involved the flaying and dissection of cadavers, a practice which could have attracted the unwelcome attention ofthe Church authorities. To modern eyes, his work is informed and authoritative,and certainly the product of practical scientific inquiry.

This beautiful rendering of a child in the womb belies the fact that it was onlypossible as a result of dissection. It is surrounded by da Vincis observations.

Origins

Da Vinci has added various sketches with commentaries explaining his ideas aboutthe progress of the reproductive cycle from fertilized egg to fetus.

Da Vinci at warAt several times in his career da Vinci was commissioned to design fortifications and develop engines of war for various powerful patrons. While many were eminently practical designs, his fantastical and often gruesome imagination producedsome very unpleasant machines, and some ingenious devices and flights of fancy (including, indeed, a prototype flying machine).

Killing machine Da Vinci seems to have been able to separatehis compassionate fascination with the workings of the human body from his gleein the deadly efficiency of this fantastic machine.

How does it work?

Da Vincis text here provides detailed measurements and descriptions of the mechanism which activates the scythes.

Although it was highly unlikely that the machine would ever be built (or be thateffective in the field), da Vinci carefully demonstrated the mechanical workings.


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Attention to detail

HorsepowerDa Vinci was interested in the science of mechanics and power, and saw the horseas the motor-force which would propel this particular machine into action.

Mirror writingAlthough naturally written in classical Italian, da Vincis elegant hand remains clear, even when written, as it originally was, in reverse (left). When photographically transposed (right) the accuracy of his writing becomes clear. His secrecy has given rise to numerous far-fetched theories concerning his membership of arcane secret societies unlikely in a man so interested in investigating the practical properties of the world around him, unlike his contemporary alchemists (see page 52).

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CODES OF WAR

ENIGMA: THE UNBREAKABLE SYSTEM

ENIGMA:

The unbreakable system

The daykey settingsEach month the German military would issue a new daycode book. This listed the individual settings operators were to use each day to set up all Enigma machineswithin each respective military unit. This ensured that the first message sent could be read by all members of the unit.

Using the Enigma machinePlaintext was typed in to produce the enciphered text, this was transmitted by radio, and the receiver merely typed in the coded message, and the machine produced the decoded plaintext.

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Inventing EnigmaThe Enigma machine was first patented in 1918 by Arthur Scherbius (18781929) forcommercial use, but it soon attracted the attention of the German military. Ove

r the next decade the encoding system was gradually made more sophisticated.

he German military recognized the need for a more secure enciphering system in 1923, after British official histories of World War I revealed that German messages had been read. They eventually acquired over 30,000 Enigma machines, with a more complex design than those available commercially. The Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe,and German Navy all issued separate daycode books throughout World War II. The beauty of the Enigma machines mechanical enciphering system was that it was very fast and all but eliminated human error the plaintext was typed in to produce theenciphered text, this was transmitted by radio, and the receiver merely typed in the coded message, and the machine produced the decoded plaintext. In addition, without access to the daycode settings it was almost impregnable.Reflector This did not rotate, thus ensuring that encrypted text was automatical

ly sent back through the scrambler disks, mechanically producing the decrypted text as it was typed in.

EncryptionThis schematic diagram follows the letter impulse for U, showing its passage toencryption as S. For the purposes of clarity, only four of the available switches on the plugboard have been set.

6

The process is repeated at the third scrambler which turns one notch (or letter)once the second scrambler has completed its cycle of 26 letters.

5

The process is repeated at the second scrambler which turns one notch (or letter) once the first scrambler has completed its cycle of 26 letters.

Setting up EnigmaFollowing the daycode setting, every morning the operators would: re-order the scrambler disks; adjust the scrambler orientation (which letter of the alphabet each scrambler should display at the start of the day); and change the plugboardsettings. The systems combined meant a total of 10,000,000,000,000,000 calculati


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ons would have to be made to analyze the encryption.

4Entry Wheel

7

Each letter impulse now reaches the reflector, which passes it back through thescrambler disks via a different path. Reflector Scrambler Disks

8

The impulse travels back through the plugboard and arrives at the lampboard, where the final encryption is displayed to the operator.

The arriving letter impulse passes through the disk to a different exit point, and thus a different letter entry point on the next scrambler. In addition, the first scrambler rotates by one notch with every letter that is typed.

3Lampboard

Resetting the settingsDuring World War II, in order to increase the level of security, the Enigma oper

ator would send an initial message, using the daycode settings, which would be anew setting for the scramblers. This would be repeated to ensure consistency. Thus, if the daykey required BMQ, a second signal might be preceded by a randomly chosen combination of three letters, for example, STP STP, requiring the receiver tlter his scrambler settings accordingly.

1

Scrambler disks Each contain the 26 letters of the alphabet, and were set in anystart position from A-Z (determined by the daycode). They were geared to rotatecyclically. From 1938 the machines had five scrambler disks. Lampboard Shows the operator the encryption (or decryption) of each letter when it has been typedin. Keyboard For typing in plaintext (or received encrypted text).

The operator types in plaintext, which is transmitted through the machine by electric current. Keyboard

Passing beyond the plugboard, the letter impulses travel to and enter the firstscrambler disk.

2

Plugboard

Letters that have been switched on the plugboard are first enciphered here. Remaining letters go straight to the first scrambler.

The portability of the

Enigma machine was a huge advantage. One is seen here in use on General Heinz Guderians half-track on the battlefield.

Each disk has 26 contacts on

each face (which correspond to letters of the alphabet) wired to 26 different contacts on its opposite face. Each numbered disk would be wired differently.


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Plugboard Originally, you could swap only six letters before the plaintext reached the scramblers, but in 1939, an enlarged plugboard increased this number to ten.

DecryptionHaving set the machine using the same daycode settings as the encrypting operator, the receiving operator types in the received encrypted text. The letter impulses pass through the plugboard, the scramblers, and the reflector, and then returns through the system to be displayed, decrypted to plaintext on the lampboard.

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CODES OF WAR

CRACKING ENIGMA

Cracking Enigma

Alan Turing at Bletchley ParkA gifted young mathematician at Cambridge, Alan Turing (1912-54) was among the mixed bag of recruits for the new British cryptanalysis center at Bletchley Park(see page 118). He had been working on binary mathematics and theoretically programmable computers and, confronted by what had been achieved in Poland (left), he set about designing an improved series of bombes to analyze the newly increasedscrambler settings of the Enigma machine. As the Enigma machine settings were altered at midnight every night, they had to work quickly. Nevertheless, the possible settings would be too numerous to work through in the time available withoutthe aid of some further clues, some of which had been identified before Turingarrived in 1939.

Jumbo and ColossusTurings plans for bombes running in series, interconnected, and wired to reveal loops were approved, and 100,000 allocated to create them. Each bombe consisted of 12sets of replica scramblers, and the first, named Victory, was in operation by March 1940. As the prototype was being tested and improved, the Germans changed their message key protocol, causing a decrypt blackout. An improved bombe was in place

by August and, by Spring 1942, 15 more bombes were in place, running through cribs, scrambler settings, and message keys at an industrial rate. On a good day, the system could decipher all these within an hour, revealing the encryption behind the rest of the days signals. By the end of the war, some 200 bombes were in operation. Nevertheless, the entire process still relied on accurate cribs, so humaningenuity still propelled the mechanical system. Eventually the number of bombesand the links between them created the worlds first programmable computer, code-named Jumbo, but known among the operators as Heath Robinson. In 1942 Turing developd a further shortcut for decrypting the German naval Lorenz cipher used in an adapted Enigma machine, the Geheimschreiber, and passed on his ideas to Tommy Flowers and Max Newman, who went on to develop the Colossus computer, a more integrated programmable digital device, the true forebear of the modern computer. In July 1942 Turing traveled to America to share his ideas with US cryptanalysts. Alt

hough the British shared their secrets with their Western allies, and BletchleyPark was involved in decrypting Italian and Japanese codes as well, the story ofEnigma and its decryption was to remain secret until the 1970s.

SThe German challengeUpon the outbreak of World War II, Allied cryptographers were confronted by an awesome problem. The Enigma system (see page 116) had many variations. In addition to its existing complexity, in 1938 the Germans added a further two scramblerdisks to many machines, and the plugboard was made more complex. There were alsovariants on the machines used by different parts of the German military, and each had different codebooks. The Afrika Corps used its own system, as did the Kriegsmarine, the German navy. It was the latters Enigma signals (the Lorenz cipher)

that were the most difficult to penetrate and the most vital for Bletchley Parkto decrypt, as U-boat activity in the North Atlantic threatened to sever lifeline supplies from North America.

ince its introduction by the German military, it had been assumed by everyone that the Enigma system (see page 116) was unbreakable. Although versions of the commercial machine had been acquired by Germanys former adversaries, the workings of the military machine and the codebooks were unknown. But, in 1931 the French secret service bought copies of plans of the machine and daycode books from a disaffected German veteran, Hans-Thilo Schmidt, who continued to supply details of


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the daycode books for several years. The French made little of them. It was Poland that opened the door.Poland fights backIn the 1930s, aware of German designs on their territory, the Polish cryptanalytical bureau, Biuro Szyfrw, prioritized breaking the Enigma coding system. An entente with France meant that much of the Enigma material was handed over to the Poles, who set about building replica machines. The Poles realized that Enigma wasa mechanical system that required mathematical rather than linguistic skills toanalyze. It was an inspired idea. Recent Polish history provided several mathematicians from the formerly German-occupied parts of Poland, who were familiar with the language. Among them was Marian Rejewski.

Alan Turing, whose Turing machineshelped to unravel Enigma.

Marian Rejewski

(1905-80), the man who cracked Enigma.First letter A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Fourth letter UM X N C B V Q P W O E I R Z T Y L A K S J D H F G

1

The message key

Rejewski concentrated on the initial Enigma three-letter message key, sent twiceat the beginning of each transmission. Realizing that with only three scramblerdisks, every fourth letter must represent a different encryption of the first letter, he found a chink in Enigmas armor. He still had no idea of the daykey, buthe started to look for links, or chains, of substitution. With access to enoughmessages in a day, he could build tables of relationships between the first andfourth, second and fifth, third and sixth letters of the message key.

3

P lugboard

The tables unlocked the scrambler settings, but not the plugboard settings. However, decrypting what they could using the scrambler setting tables, frequently arecognizable message might appear: SONVOYC ON SOURCE It is clear that the s and the c might have been switched on the plugboard which, when adjusted, would read: CONVOYS ON COURSE

The German addition of

By analyzing these tables he identified chains, that is, how many links there were before the first letter linked back to itself, in this instance A-U, US, S-A three links (left). Rejewski realized that, while the plugboard settings were indefinable, the number of links in each chain was a reflection of the scrambler settings. Some chains were long, some short. Rejewski and his colleagues spent a

year compiling tables of all the possible 105,456 scrambler settings, correlating them to the length of potential chains. Later, as the Germans changed their protocols, making his tables redundant, Rejewski developed electronic calculatorscalled bombes to recompile the tables.

2

C hains

Success


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Rejewskis breakthrough enabled Poland to read Enigma signals for most of the 1930s. The addition of two further scramblers and an extended plugboard in 1938 setthem back. A month before the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the Poles managed to convey two replica Enigma machines, plans for the bombes, and Rejewskis analysis to Britain.

two extra scrambler disks meant that their invasion of Poland in September 1939was a surprise.

Cillies Human error and laziness by some Enigma operators led them to use repeatedmessage-key combinations instead of entirely rand om ones. Once identified these gave the cryptanalysts a useful clue, and signals from those operators were monitored. Scrambler codes The Germans assu med that ensuring no scrambler disk occupied the same posit ion on consecutive days would make the system more secure.In fact, it made it weaker, as once one or two of the scrambler positions had been ascertained, it redu ced the remaining potential combinations, while also redu cing the possible combinations for the following day. Cribs Identifying known words in a message, a crib, could help unravel the settings. Certa in sorts of signal were predictable and formulaic, for example those from weather stations, often beginning with or conta ining the German word wetter. Such signals were monitored, and educated guesses made at identifying words of this sort. Another crib was to lay mines at a specific location, then try to find evidence of the known geographical coordinates in U-boa t messages. Pinches The acquisition of Germ an codebooks was a priority. During the Battle of the Atlan tic both U-boats and weat

her ships were raided, codebook s captured, and the vessels sunk to avoid alerting the Germ ans to their loss. Loops Turing also worked on the problem of what might happen if the Germans stopped repea ting the message key. He focused on thearchive of decrypts, and began to detect a pattern of loops, not dissimilar to Rejewskis chains, which potentially revealed the scram bler settings if the plaintextwas known or a crib gues sed. He had discovered another shortcut. Many machines If he organized enou gh bombes working in sequence, each one imitating the action of a different scrambler disk, Turing reckoned he might stand a chance of churning through the 17,576 vario us possible settings in a short period, but he stillrequired a mechanical shortcut. This he achieved by linking the sequ enced machines together, and establishing circuits betw een them which revealed a matched loop by lighting a bulb on the circuit. The plugboard problem Like Rejew ski, bysetting aside the plugboard problem, Turing had minim ized it. With an accurate c

rib a decrypted word might appear with some odd letters in it which, when transposed, revealed the plugboard settings.

Colossus in operation at Bletchley Park.

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CODES OF THE UNDERWORLD

The Bushido code: the Seven Virtues

From Samurai to Yakuza

FROM SAMURAI TO YAKUZA

The samurai legacyAfter the modernizing reforms of the 1860s, various organizations invoked the samurai past (below), among them Genyosha, or Dark Ocean Society, founded in 1881,which aimed to unite hundreds of secret societies, each with their own covert recognition codes. Highly successful and violent, they turned Japans first election of 1892 into a bloodbath and, in 1895, assassinated the Korean queen, triggering the Japanese invasion that lasted 50 years. The successor to Genyosha was theKokuryu-kai, or Black Dragon Society, founded in 1901. It promoted Japanese expansion into Asia, and was responsible for acts of violence

The yakuzaThe yakuza claim to have an inviolable code of honor (like the Italian Mafia), derived from the bushido. Within each gumi or gang, loyalties are extremely rigorous, hierarchies as elsewhere in Japanese society rigid, and feudal rituals arestill observed. The yakuza are not, however, a secret society but an accepted part of the Japanese political and business scene so much so that some headquarter

s have a plate on the door like any other company. Yakuza are easily recognizable, even without the mon lapel pins proclaiming their clan affiliation; the clothes, the large cars with darkened windows, the swagger these are codes for gangsters almost anywhere, but especially in a country where even heads of major corporations are physically self-effacing.

Yakuza traditionsYakuza are also famous for their spectacular full-body tattoos horimono. These were always associated with the floating world, marking out those living on the margins of society. To be tattooed is a sign of group

T

Courage

Right Conduct

Mercy

Loyalty

he ideas behind the concept of the samurai go back at least 1,000 years in Japanand are based on Confucian ethics, modified for a predominantly martial world.Bushido the Way of the Warrior was the code by which, ideally, the samurai livedand died. The samurai formed a powerful and prestigious section of Japanese society for centuries. But, from around 1600, the reforms of the Tokugawa shogunate

reduced the opportunities for battle; peace and prosperity led to the rise of merchant classes, and the warriors found themselves increasingly marginalized. Finally, the Meiji reforms of 1868 swept away the feudal world. Many samurai weredeeply resentful at what they felt was a betrayal of their way of life and the true nature of Japan. Nevertheless, the samurai provided a model for several morerecent Japanese organizations and institutions, not least the notorious yakuza.Mon crestsFrom the 12th century in feudal Japan, identifying crests mon or kamon were usedon the battlefield, on armor, banners, and personal possessions of all kinds. Asamurai helmet Unlike complicated Western displaying the mon of the wearers clan


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. heraldry, each mon was generally a single boldly-stylized symbol within a circle; color was irrelevant. The motif might be military, such as arrows, or an animal, such as the butterfly of the Taira clan, but plant motifs were the most common. The eldest son generally inherited his fathers mon, while younger sons woulduse a slightly modified variant, so that there are an estimated 10,000 designsregistered today. The only crests that were absolutely inviolable were those ofthe Emperor and his chief advisor. After the Muromachi period (c.1336-1573), monbecame increasingly common across the social scale and the new merchant class adopted them as advertising logos, which persist today.Commercial mon logos Many modern Japanesecompanies still use mon as their logo.

Honor

Respect

To atone for an offense, a yakuza will removea finger joint, formally presenting it to his oyabun (father).

Honesty

These virtues were the keystones of the samurai warrior code, (and essentially the same as the US Army Core Values adopted in the mid-1990s). Of many Japanese works on the subject, the best known in the West is the Bushido Shoshinshu Code of

the Samurai written by Taira Shigesuke, a samurai and military strategist of theearly 18th century. It remains an excellent guide to the mindset of modern, andparticularly corporate, Japan, and especially the deep-rooted concepts of giri obligation which can extend as far as blood vengeance and ninjo the ability to feel compassion.

Right-wing revivalists reveled in the dressand customs of medieval samurai.

The samurai were the military elite, retainers ofa feudal lord or daimyo.

against student and labor unions, politicians perceived as left-wing, and the de

mocratic process in general. For muscle, they linked up with the gamblers and gangsters of the yakuza, which became one of the worlds leading crime syndicates. Not traditionally politicized, the yakuza also romanticized the samurai past, which lent glamor to their occupations of extortion, rackets, prostitution, and people-trafficking.

solidarity and of physical courage, and a declaration of having chosen the darkside. The samurai who had disobeyed or failed his lord atoned by seppuku ritualsuicide by disembowelment. The modern yakuza atones for his offense by cutting off one joint of his finger yubitsume. Initiation rituals and rituals marking agreements are also of great importance, with a certain number of cups of sake an appropriate offering to the Shinto gods revered by the yakuza being formally exchanged. Blood brotherhood rituals involving exchanging blood are now being phased

out because of the threat of HIV.Each tattoo is individually

Traditional mon crests Certain mon were

reserved for the most powerful in the land.

designed, the motifs including references to the owners gang and mon, and represents hundreds of hours of work. Public baths often have a No Tattoos sign, to the mystification of tourists.


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Benihana

The inviolable crest of the Emperor

Crest of the Prime Minister

Crest of the Tokugawa shoguns

Crest of the Taira clan

Yamaha

Mitsubishi

Toyota

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THE ZODIAC MYSTERY

The Zodiac MysteryDespite the popular belief that serial killers tend to play cat-and-mouse games with the police, this largely remains the stuff of crime fiction and slasher movies.Very few serial killers want to be caught. While Thomas Harriss Hannibal Lecter might crave public infamy, in reality most try to conceal their tracks. Although the first modern serial killer, Jack the Ripper, did taunt the police with notes and newspaper cuttings, often identifying his victims and supplying appalling details of his crimes, few others have done this. One major exception was theself-named Zodiac killer.Dear Editor, I am the killerThe Zodiac killer stalked the parks and lovers lanes of the San Francisco Bay andValley areas, killing five and injuring two in three attacks at remote places between December 1968 and 1969 (although some think he may have struck as early as 1966, and continued until 1974, or later; if all claims including his are counted, the body count could be nearer 40). He taunted the authorities with a series of letters and cards, four of which included encoded messages (see page 142).The first, and longest, message was sent in three parts to local newspapers theVallejo TimesHerald, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner respectively, each received on July 31, 1969. Each coded message was accompanied

by a scrawled cover note providing crime scene details that had not been made public by the police. The Zodiac demanded that they and the almost identical cover notes (which claimed credit for fatal attacks at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs) be published. As a result of this, there was considerable public interest. The police commissioned forensic tests and handwriting analyses in addition to sending the coded notes to cryptanalysts, but few solid clues emerged. However, by August 8, high school teacher Donald Harden and his wife Bettye, readersfrom Salinas, had cracked the majority of the coded message.

The Harden decryptThe first Zodiac coded message comprised 408 characters organized in 24 rows each of 17 letters or symbols. It was written out on a single sheet of paper, whichwas then cut into three. This was an idiosyncratic substitution cipher cryptogr

am, which only partially followed systematic logic, and included misspellings (which may have been intentional). The Hardens assumed words such as killing and fun ight appear somewhere, and that the killer had an ego, and that the word I would reur. Frequency analysis also revealed that the Zodiac was using homophones (meaning that certain letters in the plaintext were represented by two or more lettersor symbols).

The key words or phrases

identified by the Hardens are highlighted in red; having isolated these, the Hardens could begin to flesh out the rest of the decrypt. Some of the misleading homophones are picked out in blue. Interestingly, the key word/ letter I was one ofthem, being represented in turn by a triangle, P, U, reverse K, triangle. In con

trast, K is always represented by /.

The verified murdersA picnic area on Lake Berryessa was the site of the attack on Bryan Hartnell andCecilia Shepard on September 27, 1969. This artists impression of the attacker is based on a description by Hartnell, who survived. Although carrying a firearm,the Zodiac used a plastic clothesline to bind them, then stabbed both victims.He inscribed the cross-and-circle symbol on Hartnells car using a felt pen, and added Vallejo/1220-68/7-4-69/Sept 27-696:30/ by knife. Despite the Zodiacs later claims, there remain only five official Zodiac killings. The first occurred on Dece


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mber 20, 1968, when lovers David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were shot on Lake Herman Road, Benicia, California. On July 4, 1969 another couple were attacked and shot, at Blue Rock Springs Golf Course outside Vallejo; Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin died, but Michael Renault Mageau survived. This was followed by the Lake Berryessa attack as described above. Finally, Paul Lee Stine, a cab driver,was shot dead by his passenger on October 11, 1969 at Presidio Heights, San Francisco.

San Francisco Examiner, accompanying one third of the first coded message. Eachcover note revealed unpublished details of the Zodiacs attacks.

The cover note sent to the

Donald Harden and his wife Bettye lookedfor predictable words in the cipher.

The Harden decrypt remains convincing and, although the meaning of the final 18letters of the message remains unclear , it reveals inherent inconsistencies andmisspellings (possibly intentional, as with the cover notes, to give an impression of illiteracy) which provide a chilling insight into the disorganized stateof mind of the Zodiac. But the story didnt stop there. While the Hardens had provided a tantalizing glimpse of the inner workings of the Zodiacs mind, his subsequent ciphers and other chilling messages (see page 142) proved impregnable, and continue to fascinate cryptanalysts and conspiracy theorists alike.

The Hardens decrypt reads:I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS S O MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILDGAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGERO UES ANAMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YO UR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAT WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE AND ALL THEI HA VE KILLED WILL BECOME MY S LA VES I WILL NOT GIVEYO U MY NAME BECAUSE YO U WILL TRY TO S LOW DOWN OR STOP MY COLLECTING OF S LAVES FOR MY AFTER LIFE EBEORIETEMETHHPITI

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THE ZODIAC LEGACY

The Zodiac LegacyDThe Zodiacs signature symbolwas the most consistent coded image the killer used. Referencing alchemical andnecromantic imagery, it also chillingly echoes a telescopic sight.

espite the Hardens breakthrough in deciphering the Zodiacs first anonymous cryptogram (see page 141), the killings continued, as did his taunts to the authorities(the blue pigs or blue meanies as he called them). Targeting mainly the San Francico Chronicle or its staff, his subsequent 15 or so letters and cards built up apicture of an obsessive not only interested in killing, but in attracting attention by revealing details of his crimes, and ever more monstrous schemes. These mailings included a further three cipher messages which have remained unsolved.

The later lettersThe inclusion of scorecards in his later letters, comparing his claimed body count (ultimately 37) versus the SFPDs success rate (0), reflects a detection success rate as true today as it was over 30 years ago. Several suspects were investigated, but only one remains a strong contender. The fact is that the self-named Zodiac appears to have been active for about two years, and his crimes and subseq

uent codes remain unsolved.This is the Zodiac speaking. The

The San Francisco Chronicle had received a letter postmarked November 9, 1969 describing in detail a plan to bomb a school bus in the Bay Area. Such an attack never materialized (although it later inspired the plot of the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry). But some five months later, on April 20, 1970, a further threatened bomb attack was sent to the newspaper, at the end of which the Zodiac included for the first time a scorecard (Zodiac = 10; SFPD = 0 ). However, included in the letter was an even more explosive piece of information: the Zodiac revealed his name, again in cipher, and again it remains unsolved.

My name is

he remains the most viable suspect in the Zodiac case.

Arthur Leigh Allen in 1969;

Under suspicionPopular speculation produced hundreds of possible perpetrators, but only one primary suspect emerged. Arthur Leigh Allen (1933-92) was a loner, who lived at home with his parents, and worked at various elementary schools, among other jobs.Police were alerted by an acquaintance of Allens in 1971, based on bizarre and incriminating claims by Allen. He was interviewed several times, and the evidenceaccumulated: forensic techniques were still limited and, despite undoubted similarities, a Department of Justice analysis report in 1971 ruled out any connectio

n between Allens handwriting and that of the Zodiac. Nevertheless, he behaved erratically and drank heavily; he was known to humorously misspell words and phrases; he possessed guns, and bloodstained knives were found in his car (which he claimed he used for killing chickens); and he admitted reading Richard Connells 1924 short mystery story The Most Dangerous Game, which appears to be referenced inthe first coded message. Also, he owned a Zodiac watch, a present from his mother in 1967. Associates and friends provided further intriguing circumstantial evidence. Further, Allen was convicted of child-molesting in 1974. Investigationscontinued until Allens death almost two decades later, but the police failed to establish any concrete links.


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The last cipher The fashion

killer revealed his nom de guerre in a letter postmarked August 4, 1969 to the Vallejo Times-Herald, and for the first time signed the letter with his characteristic cross-and-circle mark.

for wearing symbolic badges or buttons temporarily distracted the Zodiac: he realized that his symbol would work just as well as a Smiley or Ban the Bomb logo, andhe recognized the horrific celebrity he had acquired. A letter mailed to the Chronicle on June 26, 1970 suggests a new fashion in Zodiac buttons. It also included a map (possibly the site of a threatened bomb), a further scorecard, and thefourth and last cipher message which, like the previous two, has never been decrypted.

The Zodiac drops from view Further letters

Sorry I havent written. Mailed to the San Francisco

Chronicle on November 8, 1969, this cheap but sinister novelty card included a 340-character cipher. Superficially similar to his first coded message, the Hardens decrypting method failed to crack it, and the meaning remains a mystery.

were received by the Chronicle postmarked July 24 and July 26, detailing more cr

imes, but with no further ciphers. Chronicle reporter Paul Avery took delivery of an ominous Halloween card mailed on October 27, 1970, but thereafter the Zodiac would seem to have stopped his activities. Two later letters are often included in the Zodiac canon, one postmarked March 13, 1971 to the Los Angeles Times threatening a renewed murder campaign targeting LA policemen, and four years latera letter extolling the satirical qualities of 1974 movie The Exorcist was received by the San Francisco Chronicle postmarked January 29, 1974, but both seem morelikely to be copycat mailings and remain unconvincing.

The sample of Allens handwriting used foranalysis. The results were negative.

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ENCODING THE WORLD

THE GENETIC CODE

THE GENETIC CODE

DNA is made from four molecules,

OWatson and CrickPerhaps the two names most associated with DNA are James Watson (left, b.1928) and Francis Crick (right, 1916-2004). In 1952 both Watson and Crick were researchers at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge with the goal ofdetermining the structure of DNA. In 1952 there was no definitive understandingas to how DNA was structured, organized, or how vital it was in determining ourgenetic code. Watson and Crick attempted to discover the structure of DNA by playing with scale-model atoms. Soon they discovered how the four bases of adenine,thymine, cytosine, and guanine fit together. They noticed that the molecular structure of each of these bases was such that adenine only fits together with thymine, while cytosine only fits together with guanine. Using this information, they decided to stack these bases on top of each other to see the entire structure. The result was the now-famous double helix, most often compared to a winding staircase. Watson and Crick won the Nobel Prize for their work, together with colleague Maurice Wilkins, in 1962. Though their discovery has been colored by contro

versy, such as the role of fellow researcher Rosalind Franklins previous findings, and Watsons statements on race and gender, they are still lauded for bringing to public light the structure and function of DNA.

f all the codes in existence, perhaps the most fundamental is the genetic code.This code, imprinted in the DNA of every organism alive today, contains a list of instructions for how we function and reproduce, not to mention deciding the color of our hair, and if we like brussels sprouts. The organization of each organisms DNA determines whether we are a human, a chimpanzee, or a banana, as well aswhether we are at greater risk for heart disease, diabetes, and breast cancer. Cracking this genetic code has been the task of scientists for the past 50 years,so that we may gain insight on similarities we have to other animals, as well asour similarities to each other.

How the genetic code worksThe instructions, or blueprints, that determine how our bodies are constructed andfunction are housed within each of the trillion cells of our bodies. Each cellsnucleus (excluding the germ cells) contains an identical set of structures called chromosomes. The chromosomes in turn consist of a compound called deoxyribosenucleic acid (DNA). It is the number of chromosomes and variety of genes withineach chromosome that makes a human a human, a gorilla a gorilla, and a banana abanana. For example, humans have 46 chromosomes, gorillas have 48 chromosomes, and bananas have 33 chromosomes. Furthermore, although all members of the same species have the same number of genes housed in the same number of chromosomes, many genes have a number of variations (e.g. genes for eye color, hair color, etc.), and it is the specific combination taken from the overall gene pool, that makeseach of us a unique being.

Nucleotides Molecules ready to be paired with template to grow the mRNA strand.Separation The two strands of the double helix unzip.

adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G) that make up the lettersof the DNA code. These four bases are connected to a support structure to form a nucleotide and then strung together to form pairs adenine with thymine, cytosine with guanine, like the rungs of a ladder. Within the mRNA strand, thymine is replaced by uracil.

Thymine Cytosine Guanine Adenine Uracil


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Genes and proteinsLiving things break down nutrients into their constituent parts and synthesize what they need according to the template supplied by their genes. A gene is a length of the DNA strand containing anything from 500 to 10,000 base pairs that provide the code for an individual protein. The order of the base pairs within thegenes forms a template or code that determines how the proteins of our body are manfactured, the primary task of genes. Proteins are constantly being produced in order to regulate our bodies functions and build or repair tissue/muscle.

Humans and our closest relativesOne of the most important pieces of information we can learn from studying the genetic code is how humans are related to our closest animal relatives. A comparison of human (above left) and chimpanzee skulls (above right) suggests marked similarities, but many differences. In fact, comparisons of our genetic code to that of chimpanzees, for example, has shown that we share approximately 98.5% of our genes, and that it is only the 1.5% difference between us and chimps that makes us human. In addition to discovering how closely related humans are to our closest relatives, genetics studies can also determine the approximate date of themost recent common ancestor between humans and any number of animal relatives.This information can be extremely useful as a complement to fossil or archaeological information. Research in this area has revealed that the most recent commonancestor between chimps and humans was approximately 5-7 million years ago, a date that is also supported by fossil data on the earliest human ancestors.

Reuniting The two strands join to re-form the double helix. Replacement base Uracil replaces thymine in the messenger RNA strand.

mRNA Newly-formed messenger RNA (mRNA) strand.

mRNA strand ribosome

Unzipped DNA Template DNA strand.

Codon Three adjacent bases (codon) provide the code for an amino acid.

chain of amino acid

Chromosomes are made from DNA

found in the nucleus of living cells.The double helix structure of DNA containsthe blueprint for life.

Transcribing the code When genes are being

Cell containing nucleus.

Nucleus containing chromosomes.

Chromosome made from DNA.

DNA double helix.

read, the two sides of a section of DNA unzip. One of the DNA strands acts as a template. Nucleotides align themselves sequentially by base-pairing along the template strand, forming a messenger RNA (mRNA) strand. The sequence of bases on the newmRNA strand thus matches the sequence on the DNA strand that was previously paired with the template (with the exception that RNA uses a base called uracil instead of thymine to pair with adenine). This process is called transcription. The newly-formed strand of mRNA detaches and migrates out of the nucleus to a cellular


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structure called the endoplasmic reticulum, which is the site of protein synthesis.

Translating the code Proteins are

essentially long chains of molecules called amino acids. Only 20 types of aminoacid exist. Each amino acid is specified for by three adjacent bases (called a codon) on the mRNA strand. There are four different bases so 64 different codons are possible. During protein synthesis a cellular organelle, called a ribosome, works its way along the strand reading or translating the codons. Another type of RNAmolecule, transfer RNA (tRNA), attaches to the required amino acid and deliversthem to the ribosome where the protein is built up, amino acid by amino acid, according to the code originally inscribed in the DNA.

A ribosome reading along

an mRNA strand, attaching amino acids to each other to build a protein.

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CODES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

BODY LANGUAGE

Body Language

Poker tellsPoker is as much a game of skill as it is the chance fall of cards. Much of thatskill resides in the ability to conceal ones own emotions during a game, and to read what is going on in the mind of your opponents. Giveaway signs are known as tells. In the movie Casino Royale (2006), James Bond Hand shakes Look out for shaking hands when betting. Among new players this normally indicates they have a good hand, and are excited at the prospect of winning. Equally it may indicate a bluff. Eyes down Glancing at their chips just after the deal is complete (the flop)usually means a player has hit their hand. In contrast, staring at the flop searching for something often means they missed. It may indicate a forthcoming bluff.Many professionals now wear sunglasses to conceal these tells. uses his expert intuition to recognize when the criminal mastermind Le Chiffre is bluffing he blinks. When Le Chiffre knows his hand is awful, he really gives the game away by bleeding from one eye. Here are a few, more subtle, tells from the gaming tables. Frozen time Signs of increased tension: gumchewers will often stop chewing when they bluff; similarly a person may momentarily stop breathing when making their play. Talk the talk With a strong hand players tend to be confident, talkative, and relaxed. Agitated behavior or forced conversation may indicate weakness. Im in

An eagerness to bet can reveal a lot. Players holding a strong hand are usuallykeen to get their bet in the pot. A key tell here is the player who usually waits, biding his time before calling, and then uncharacteristically bets quickly.However, taking some time to bet can conceal many ruses, and can unsettle the rest of the players.

Flirtatious fansIn 19th-century Spain, wealthy young ladies would always be accompanied by a chaperone outside the house. These chaperones were famously zealous, and were charged with overseeing the behavior of their young ladies, and ensuring that they were brought up in an honorable manner. Conversation with young men that strayed from virtuous subjects such as the weather, art, literature, and politics was forbidden, forcing the maidens to create their own means of communicating using the

ir fans. A catalog of gestures developed, designed for covert courting and flirtation. Of course much of this was intuitive, but late 19th-century fan manufacturers began to publish guides to fan language, partly perhaps to increase sales. Moving the fan slowly over the chest I am single. Moving the fan quickly in snappymovements over the chest I have a boyfriend or partner. Opening and closing thefan, then touching the cheek I like you. Touching the temple with the fan and looking skywards I think of you day and night. Touching the tip of the nose withthe fan Something doesnt smell good here (the man is displeasing her, perhaps byflirting with someone else). Walking sideways, hitting the palm of the hand withthe fan Careful, my chaperone is coming. Opening and closing the fan then pointing with it Wait for me there, Ill be there soon. Covering the mouth with the fanand looking suggestive Sending a kiss. Carrying the fan closed and dangling from left hand Im looking for a boyfriend. Fanning very rapidly Im not so sure about

you ... Closing the fan very rapidly Talk to my father ... Placing the fan closed over the heart I love you very much. Placing the fan open over the heart I want to marry you. Giving the fan to the man My heart belongs to you. Taking the fan from the man I want no more from you. Covering part of the face with the openfan Weve finished. Letting the fan drop Im suffering but I love you. Hitting the left hand with the fan I like you. Looking outside Im considering it ... Hitting right hand with fan I hate you. Hitting dress with the fan Im jealous. Resting thefan closed on the left cheek Im yours.

A


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Body in controlWhile most of us strive to control the messages our bodies might be sending out,some reactions often prove uncontrollable. Blushing, perspiring, weeping, and reacting to pain often cannot be contained. The eye can give away many signals, the dilated pupil frequently indicating interest or attraction, while an inability to make or maintain eye contact usually means embarrassment or dishonesty.

side from verbal communication, the potential for determining or demonstrating moods and feelings by the manipulation of the face and body is huge. Alongside self-conscious use of body language such as winking, frowning, or waving, carefulobservation can reveal a complex of hidden and often unintended subconscious messages. An enormous amount of such information is instinctively understood we cannormally tell if someone is interested or bored by us, if they are embarrassed,or if they have something to hide. The science of decoding what individuals reveal about themselves is now widely understood by psychiatrists and psychoanalysts,and this knowledge is used in personnel recruitment, interviews, and interrogation.Conscious and subconscious communicationIf we divide body language into two areas, facial expressions and posture or gestures, it becomes clear that we are much more conscious of many of our facial expressions rather than ways in which our bodies can show how we are feeling. We are much more aware of smiles, grimaces, frowns, and shocked expressions, although by adulthood the brain is so conditioned that these can be difficult to control. Much can also be read from hand and arm movements which are, in the majority,

subconscious gestures that enhance and reflect the speakers attitude toward thetopic of conversation, considerably more commonplace among speakers of Romance languages such as Spanish or Italian.

Making facesArtists from classical times onwards observed and sketched facial expressions and physical stances and poses as a means of expressing emotions in their work. However, the Austrian portrait sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (173683) was oneof the first to attempt to catalog the range of human expression in a series ofover 50 busts, based on studies made in lunatic asylums in Munich. Although often extreme, these studies reflect the Enlightenments interest in every aspect ofhuman behavior.

Legs and arms firmly crossed Disinterest, annoyance, a defensive posture. Leaning forward, hands to chin Attentive, interested, enthusiastic. Playing with tie or hair (men) Nervous, uncertain. Comfortably crossed legs, bouncing of the foot(women) Flirtatious invitation/ sexual interest. Eyes looking to left Obvious discomfort, often lying, bad in interviews. Eyes looking to right Fact-finding, consideration, fine in interviews. Head up, blank eyes Mild interest, perhaps thinking of something else. Head tilted to one side, narrowed eyes Interest, positive consideration. Tightening of the jaw/clenching teeth Frustration and anger.

Examples of more subconscious body language

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CODES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

THE LANGUAGE OF DREAMS

The Language of Dreams

The psychology of dreamsFreud theorized that dreams could be interpreted; each individual has their own key to decoding the language of their dreams and therefore their unconscious. Freud believed that ultimately all dreams are unconscious wish-fulfillments, although their representation of an unfulfilled wish may be strange and obscure; he believed the same was true of any kind of dream including daydreams. Jung attachedgreater significance to dreams and dreaming than Freud; like Freud, he saw themas outlets for our unconscious, but not merely as a key to the unconscious. He believed that dreams had their own internal language and logic and, for the morespiritual Jung, the unconscious world of dreams was as important as our waking life.

Living life through dreamsOne particularly perplexing aspect of dreaming is our participation in unsettling activities, which both Freud and Jung recognized as the expression of suppressed desires or anxieties. Some dream activities or situations recur frequently enough to be tentatively identified: Dancing Meant to signify good luck. Flying Tofly high forewarns of marital difficulties; to fly low symbolizes illness; fall

ing forewarns of a downturn in luck, but waking before hitting the ground is a good sign. Nudity Dreaming of being naked is a sign of looming scandal in your life. Swimming Generally a positive omen; if you find yourself sinking, this forewarns of a struggle ahead; swimming underwater foresees worry and difficulties inyour life. Teeth Dreaming about loose teeth is an unlucky omen; if your teeth are knocked out, this forewarns of sudden disaster; examining your teeth is a warning that you must make sure your affairs are in order.

EDream templesIn ancient Greece, temples dedicated to Asclepius the god of medicine were called asclepieia; they were essentially places of healing where people went to be cured. To begin the healing process, a would-be patient spent a night in the templ

e, and the next day would tell a priest what he or she had dreamed; the priest would then interpret the dream and base his prescribed cure on what the dream revealed. The language of dreams for followers of Asclepius was an essential guideto treating illness. Such reliance on the interpretation of the symbolism of dreams is widespread in many cultures across the world.

verybody dreams: dreaming is part of our sleep process, whether or not we actually remember them on waking. In ancient and modern cultures alike, we have alwaysbeen fascinated by our dreams or more precisely, fascinated by what our dreamscould mean or tell us. Dreams as prophecy, dreams sent by a higher power, dreamsas the key to the unconscious, dreams as a means of healing, dreams as completely random permutations of our thoughts; different people at different points inhistory have believed that dreams are all these things. This cacophony of differ

ent ideas means there can be no all-encompassing dictionary for the language ofdreams, although there have been many attempts.

The science of SurrealismThere is no set text for codifying the imagery that our brains conjure up when weare asleep, but dreams inspired visionary Romantic

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